I am not an early riser, but if I have to get up earlier than I want to, it has to be for a really good reason. For example, catching an early flight, showing up for an important meeting, or going to eat breakfast before the hotel stops serving it after 09:30.
So yes, I can get up early, not because I want to, but because I have to. Our 1st morning in Rome started with an early breakfast. The idea was to eat as much as we could, just in case we were not able to get any money for the day (or days). Was the hotel's breakfast worth losing my beauty sleep for? Hell no! Unless of course, you consider hard, dry-ish bun, butter and jam as breakfast fit for your guests who pay money! Even the tea was so bad (almost looked like coffee) that I had decided to just select hot water from the machine and use my own tea bags instead. Yes, believe it or not, I actually had 2 tea bags with me in my bag. Had helped myself to them while having free breakfast at the Diners Club airport lounge in Copenhagen the day before (thank goodness for that).
That was probably the worst breakfast I've ever had at a so-called 3* hotel, but well, life goes on and we had other important things to think about that morning such as getting some MONEY!
In order not to make this too long, here's the jist in point form:
- Banks in Denmark were closed, so could not get any explanation till 3 days later. So much for customer service.
- Waited ½hr at the Italian bank to find out why their ATM spat out a receipt showing €100, but not the €100 itself. Spoke sign language to the supposed bank manager because she spoke no English (she ought to be ashamed of herself, since even her junior staff were able to speak English). Was assured that the €100 was unlikely to have been deducted from the account, but they could not give us any money from the counter.
- Tried my Visa card at the ATM twice at 2 different machines. On the 2nd try, my card got eaten up. "War against the machines!" I say.
- Was in the end, able to get money out from Western Union with our 2 x Diners Club card. Took out €500 in total, but they took 10% as commission, so we "lost" €50 just like that. But hey, it felt so good to be able to smell the money in our hands! We didn't have to starve after all, and best of all, we didn't have to depend on crappy hotel breakfasts for survival.
We could finally start to enjoy the city as tourists, so we walked around a bit. Went to Fountain di Trevi and the Spanish Steps, and at 14:15, we had a guided tour to a Capuchin crypt located underneath the church of Santa Maria della Conezione dei Cappuccini (Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins) and later to Rome's biggest underground catacomb.
Now the Capuchin crypt was very interesting because it was decorated with the human bones of over 4000 Capuchin friars (or monks)! I'm talking real bones and skulls of dead people here, as you can see in the picture below:
Real bones - no special effects
Creepy, huh? There were also skeletons of children in there, and the heart of a Capuchin devotee, Maria Felice Peretti. All the bones were nailed to the walls and ceilings, and spinal cords were used as part of chandeliers! In the last room, the haunting words of a Latin inscription reads "What you are, we used to be, what we are, you will be".
And in case you're thinking something familiar about the name "Capuchin", then you're probably thinking of the coffee "cappucino". Apparently, the story is that the guy who invented cappucino did not know what to call this new drink, until he saw a white-haired Capuchin monk walking by in his brown hooded robes with a white rope around the waist and thought "Hey! Cappucino!" We did see a real Capuchin monk at the church, and he really was dressed as described, complete with white hair and all.
Next stop was to the Catacombs of St. Domitilla, one of the biggest and well-preserved one in Rome which is spread out over 15km of underground caves. For those who don't know, catacombs are ancient burial places set out in an underground maze of tunnels. Mostly for Christians, but there are a couple of pagan catacombs existing too. This is not recommended to those who suffer from claustrophobia, though.
A very interesting attraction to visit otherwise, and a guide will be assigned to take you through the tunnels as one can very easily get lost in the dark maze. The guy who discovered this particular catacomb was lost for 4 days before he found his way out again! That I think, was already lucky for him because I could easily imagine more days needed to see the light again! Then again, you will get to "see the light" no matter what happens. The question would be more, "Which light will you get to see?" That is, sunlight, or the "Walk towards the light my (dead) child" kind of light.
The church of San Clemente was next on the itinerary, but for some Italian reason, the church was closed an hour before the closing time written at the entrance. It was a church built on top of an ancient 4th century church, that was in turn built on top of an even older Roman house. But yeah, we had to miss that, so our guide offered us a night walking tour to discover dark Rome the next evening instead, which we signed up for.
Anyway, here are pics taken before our guided tour started:
Therefore, piece of advise: do not drink from the many fountains in Rome!
